Bull's-Eye: How the Gun Lobby
Won Legal Protection in Georgia

On Nov. 30, the National Rifle Association helped sponsor a quail hunt on an east Georgia plantation. But it was at dinner that evening that the NRA knew it had bagged its biggest quarry: Roy Barnes.

When the Democratic governor-elect flew in on a state helicopter for a dinner of fresh quail, the gun industry was under heavy fire, facing mounting lawsuits from cities trying to recoup the costs associated to gun-related violence. Two...